Durban based Super rugby team the Sharks have named an unchanged starting team to play the Blues at Kings Park in Durban on Saturday.

All of the changes to this week’s team are on the replacements bench which sees the return of Thomas du Toit, in for Khutha Mchunu and Curwin Bosch for Rhyno Smith.

“We were very happy with last week’s win against a quality side that will upset a few teams this year, but now we’re looking ahead to the Blues,” explains Sharks flyhalf Robert du Preez.

“We played some exciting rugby and some brutal rugby, especially the front row that laid the platform for the rest of the team and we were able to score some lovely tries thanks to the hard work from the forwards.”

Looking back at recent history, the Sharks had a very successful run against Kiwi teams last year and while that suggests that we won’t ever underestimate New Zealand opposition for obvious reasons, it’s important that the headspace of the team remains like that against all teams. It was clear that last week against the Sunwolves, there was no shortage of intent or focus.

“The opposition brings the best out of you, we knew these would be really big games, but we have to change our mindset around this – we can’t be up for a Kiwi game and not get up for an Aussie game.

“We will look to build on what we did last year, but this is a new year, they’re a new team and we expect a good battle out there on Saturday.”